TIMOR TODAY 12/10/99

a) Australian
Major David Kilcullen (L) discusses a standoff with an
Indonesian officer in the border village of Motaan Sunday
after Indonesian forces opened fire on Australian troops
working under the International Forces for East Timor
(INTERFET). (Reuters - Straits Times)

b) East Timorese
reufgees smile as they find their family members in a crowd
of refugees who just arrived at the footbal stadium in Dili,
East Timor, from a refugee camp in Kupang, West Timor
Monday. The U.N. flew refugees back to East Timor for the
third day Monday as they begin an operation to repatriate
the 230,000 refugees living in West Timor. (AP Photo/David
Guttenfelder)

NEWS

1) Kopassus stoking tensions along
the border 12/10/99 (Sydney Morning Herald) The commander of
the Interfet force, Major-General Peter Cosgrove, says the
weekend gun battle with Indonesian troops was an "act of
villainy". Several senior Australian officers have claimed
privately that Indonesian special forces troops are stoking
tensions along the volatile border.

2) Hold your fire,
Howard tells Jakarta 12/10/99 (Sydney Morning Herald)
Australia will seek urgent guarantees that there will be no
further attacks by Indonesian patrols on Interfet soldiers
securing the East Timor border.

3) Interfet, Jakarta
harden their positions over border clash 12/10/99 (AFP) "I
have protested in the strongest terms to local Indonesian
army authorities," Cosgrove told Australia’s ABC television
in Dili. "We have very accurate maps, and we also use a
global positioning system device ... We know to within a
few meters (yards) where we are.

4) More refugees
flown back to East Timor from Indonesia 12/10/99 (AFP)
KUPANG, Indonesia - Some 292 East Timorese refugees who had
fled or been pushed into Indonesian West Timor were flown
back home Monday aboard a UN chartered aircraft, bringing
the total since the first flights Friday to 660.

5) We
accepted the risk, now we accept the cost, Gusmao says
12/10/99 (AFP) MELBOURNE, Australia - The East Timorese
people were prepared to accept the risk of armed struggle
against Indonesia and now accept the high cost of their
freedom, resistance leader Xanana Gusmao said Monday.

6)
US Congressmen Want Indonesian Cadets Sent Home 12/10/99
(Boston Globe) NORTHFIELD, Vt. - The Department of Defense
should investigate a Norwich University program that trains
future members of the Indonesian military, two members of
Congress said this week.

BRIEFINGS

7) West Timor: The
suffering still continues. A report from Kupang 12/10/99
(ETISC) Babies have been killed in the following four ways,
according to stories of refugees in Kupang: a) Smashed
against the wall till they were quivering and dead. b)
Thrown into fires c) Piled up in heaps then stabbed with a
long sword d) Hold the child’s legs and tear them apart.
.

8) InterFET: Operations Updates Oct. 10 & 11, 1999
12/10/99 (Interfet) INTERFET continues to conduct operations
aimed at improving the security situation in East Timor
with forces continuing to build a presence in western areas
of the region.

9) Carter calls on Indonesia to ensure
safe return of refugees 12/10/99 (The Carter Center) "I am
deeply disturbed that many refugee camps in parts of
Indonesia are effectively under the control of armed East
Timorese militias who, in some instances, are being actively
supported by the Indonesian military and police."

10)
Santa Cruz murderer re- appears in Timor in 1999 12/10/99
(TAPOL) The army officer who probably did more than any
other to provoke the events that led to the Santa Cruz
massacre, Geerhan Lantara, recently re-emerged as a key
figure in organising the TNI/militias’
murderous.

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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